Is it a denial of equal protection to members of an otherwise eligible group of jurors who are otherwise excluded from the jury?

Arbitrary exclusion of an otherwise eligible group, then, is a denial of equal protection to members of that group, in that they are denied equal opportunity to serve as jurors. Whether jury service be characterized as a right, a privilege, or a duty, a state may no more extend it to some of its citizens and deny it to others arbitrarily or whimsically, than it may indiviously discriminate in the offering and withholding of the elective franchise. (Carter v. Jury Commission (1970) supra, 396 U.S. 320, 330, 90 S.Ct. 518.)